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Resistance
The Resistance is one of the two primary factions during the post-apocalyptic future of the Terminator franchise. Established some time following the nuclear catastrophe of Judgment Day, the Resistance is a worldwide force comprised of the remnants of the Earth's military powers that have been united for the purposes of destroying the renegade artificial intelligence Skynet and saving the human race from extinction. The symbol of the Resistance is a red double-helix, the shape of DNA. Original Timeline Origins "Three billion human lives ended on August 29 1997. The survivors of the nuclear fire called the war '''Judgment Day'. They lived only to face a new nightmare: the war against the machines."'' - Sarah Connor, ''Terminator 2: Judgment Day'' Due to the alterations of the timeline by both Skynet and Resistance members, the exact time the Resistance was founded is unknown. After the nuclear holocaust of Judgment Day, the Earth likely went through a "silent" period in which the survivors of J-Day remained within their shelters to stay safe from the radiation left behind from the nuclear fallout. During this time, the remnants of humanity's military forces would have attempted to regain contact with one another and establish alliances for the sake of survival. In the meantime, Skynet would use whatever facilities were connected to its network to manufacture its robot armies to carry out mankind's extermination. As machine activity increased, humans around the world would be forced to go mobile in order to escape Skynet's forces. Many would be killed on sight while others would be captured and placed in work camps for "orderly disposal". In the United States, the surviving U.S. military would establish an organized resistance against Skynet using whatever salvaged vehicles and technology they could and training any and all civilians they rescued in combat. John Connor "But there was one man who taught us to fight, to storm the wire of the camps, to smash those metal motherfuckers into junk. He turned it around. He brought us back from the brink. His name is Connor. John Connor." - Kyle Reese, ''The Terminator'' In the late 2010's, one human in particular would catch the attention of both Skynet and the Resistance after inspiring the prisoners of a work camp to revolt against the machines, teaching the slaves how to fight back and overpower the Terminator guards. This man was known as John Connor and he had been preparing to fight the machines for his entire life, since long before Judgment Day. Possessing knowledge of many unconventional forms of warfare, Connor's teachings allowed the prisoners to capture the camp and secure it for the Resistance. Connor would be recognised as a hero by the Resistance, and to some he would be regarded as a messiah. Connor's experience, courage and innovative thinking would see him rise through the ranks of the Resistance quickly. By 2029, Connor had become Allied Commander, the most senior leader of the worldwide Resistance. Victory "I look at each of you and I see the marks of this long and terrible war. For our children, for our children's children so they will not have to carry these marks, they will know who we are and what we did. That we did not bow down! We did not give in! That we rose up at this moment, at this hour, willing to sacrifice everything so that they could live in freedom! On this night... WE TAKE BACK OUR WORLD!" - John Connor, ''Terminator: Genisys'' In 2029, the Resistance would achieve the impossible. On the final night of the war, John Connor's Tech-Com unit would assault one of Skynet's most important facilities: a laboratory complex disguised as a work camp where Skynet had built its Time Displacement Equipment. While Tech-Com raided the lab complex, the bulk of the North American Resistance rallied and launched an attack on Cheyenne Mountain, former headquarters of SAC-NORAD and the place where Skynet's mainframe was located. Both strikes proved to be successful. Skynet's system core was destroyed and, as a result, all of its remaining battlefield units across the planet shut down. However, before Skynet fell, it had sent two Terminators through the temporal displacement field in a last-ditch effort to turn the tables on the Resistance. The first, a T-800, had been sent back to 1984 on a mission to kill Sarah Connor, John's mother, before he had been born. The second Terminator, a prototype T-1000, had been sent back to 1995 to kill John while he was still a child. Having captured the TDE intact, John's troops were able to reactivate it and Kyle Reese volunteered to be sent back to 1984 in order to protect Sarah. A reprogrammed T-800 was sent back to 1995 to be the young John's guardian. After Kyle and the T-800 had been sent back, John's unit destroyed the time machine. Alternate Timelines Because of Skynet's and the Resistance's temporal incursions, the course of history has splintered into numerous alternate and potential futures. In some of these timelines, Skynet may have won the war and wiped out humanity, whereas in others the war may have ended in completely unexpected ways or not occurred at all. Salvation timeline Following the destruction of Cyberdyne Systems' headquarters in 1995, Skynet's creation was postponed. Some of Miles Dyson's work had survived in some form and had been obtained by the United States Air Force, who then passed it down to Cyber Research Systems. CRS would spend the better part of a decade developing a more advanced form of Skynet that existed purely as software within cyberspace. When it developed sentience, it spread itself across countless networked computers in secret, crippling electronic communications across the globe. Believing that the communications blackout was the result of a virus, CRS gave Skynet full access to military networks to eliminate the threat, not knowing that Skynet itself was the threat. On July 25th 2004, Skynet triggered the nuclear attacks that would start the war between man and machine. In this timeline, John Connor would make contact with the remnants of the U.S. military with the aid of Katherine Brewster, whose father was an Air Force general. While John shared all his knowledge of the future with the surviving generals, they did not entirely believe his stories, though he would come to establish his Tech-Com unit by 2018. Under Connor's leadership, Tech-Com would build a reputation for successful strikes against Skynet, and Connor would inspire others to take up the fight with widespread radio transmissions encouraging whoever listened to stay alive and resist the machines however they could. In 2018, the Resistance had discovered a means of disabling Skynet, discovering a common signal between the machines that they could potentially disrupt. General Hugh Ashdown organized an attack on the Skynet Central hub in San Francisco, but Connor learned that a teenage civilian known as Kyle Reese (who was destined to be sent back in time to 1984 and ensure John's birth) had been taken prisoner by Skynet. If the plan went ahead, the Resistance would end up killing Skynet's human prisoners, including Kyle, and would result in erasing Connor from the timeline. John opposed Ashdown's plan, but the general had him relieved of command. Connor's troops chose to ignore the general's order and stood with him. Connor then sent out another radio transmission, urging the Resistance to hold back and defy Ashdown while he orchestrated a plan to enter Skynet Central and rescue the prisoners. Connor ventured to San Fransisco and managed to infiltrate Skynet Central with the help of the Hybrid infiltrator Marcus Wright. However, Marcus' assistance and the machine kill-signal were all a ploy devised by Skynet to lure John Connor into its midst and terminate him. The Resistance's mobile headquarters was destroyed by Skynet Hunter-Killers when Ashdown attempted to hack Skynet's signal. The signal only served to inform Skynet of the USS Wilmington's location so that it could deal a decisive blow to the Resistance. Having lost contact with Resistance Command, Tech-Com mobilised and headed to San Fransisco in order to rescue Connor and Skynet's prisoners. By the time they had arrived, Connor had been gravely wounded after fighting a prototype T-800, though Marcus Wright had resisted Skynet's programming and helped Connor, destroying the T-RIP and getting Connor to a Resistance chopper. As the Resistance forces fled with the rescued prisoners, Connor remotely detonated a series of T-800 fuel cells within the complex's factory level, causing a nuclear blast that destroyed Skynet Central and most of the surrounding city. After the fall of Skynet Central, Connor's life was saved thanks to Marcus donating his heart. With the Resistance's top commanders killed, Connor would soon rise to the top of the chain of command. Most of the details of the war after 2018 remain unknown, though it is confirmed that the war is still ongoing by 2032. In this timeline, Skynet has built at least two time displacement devices, though the Resistance succeeds in capturing one of them. However, John Connor is killed before seeing the war to its conclusion. On July 4th 2032, the Resistance was infiltrated by a Model-101 Terminator. Connor, his judgement clouded by his childhood familiarity with this model, allowed the infiltrator to get close and it succeeded in terminating him. Despite John's death, the Resistance would continue to fight under the leadership of his wife Kate Brewster-Connor. The T-850 that killed John was disabled and reprogrammed to aid the Resistance, eventually being sent back in time to 2004 to ensure John and Kate both survived Judgment Day. The Sarah Connor Chronicles In the TV series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Judgment Day is supposed to occur in 2011 and it is revealed that Skynet's creation is brought about by other means. In the future, Skynet is perhaps aware of how it was supposed to be created and has sent multiple Terminators back into the past at multiple points to ensure its creation. The Resistance manage to eventually capture Skynet's time displacement chamber and send their own troops back through time on various missions. Such missions include stockpiling supplies for use in the future, protecting key Resistance members, and even assassinating anyone involved with Skynet's creation. It is also worth mentioning that both sides in the Future War have traitors. A number of Skynet's machines have gained a degree of independence and seek to preserve their own existence without having to continue killing humans. Also, Skynet is supported by a number of human collaborators referred to by the Resistance as "Greys". These sympathizers have been employed to teach Terminators the finer points of human behaviour so that they can be more efficient, and in exchange gain a degree of luxury in their continued lives amid the ruined, war-torn world. Genisys timeline In Terminator: Genisys, a version of Skynet from an alternate future inhabits a T-5000 infiltrator and travels to the original timeline at the height of the Future War. Adopting the name "Alex", Skynet infiltrates the Resistance and joins Tech-Com during the final battle in 2029. After John Connor and his troops seize the Time Displacement Equipment and Kyle Reese is sent back on his mission to protect Sarah Connor, Alex attacks John and manages to kill all of the surrounding Tech-Com soldiers. Upon touching John, Skynet infects him with machine-phase matter that disassembles and reassembles John at the cellular level, converting him into a T-3000. After being transformed, John uses the TDE to travel back to 2014 and secure Skynet's creation. The progression of the war in the alternate Skynet's timeline is unknown, as is the status of the Resistance. What is known is that an unknown party were able to send a reprogrammed T-800 known as the Guardian back through time to 1973 on a mission to prevent Skynet from terminating Sarah Connor while she was still a child. As well as this, the Guardian was to prepare Sarah for future encounters with Terminators. The identities of those responsible for deploying Guardian are unknown as all information relating to them was erased from Guardian's memory before he was sent back in time. Dark Fate This timeline was brought about due to two significant past events, the first being the destruction of Cyberdyne in 1995. After the Connors destroyed Cyberdyne Headquarters and the T-800 that had been sent back to protect John, there was nothing left that could be used to create Skynet, thus the malicious AI was erased from the timeline. However, when Skynet had sent back Terminators to kill Sarah in 1984 and John in 1995, it had also sent multiple other Terminators to different periods set after the original date of Judgement Day. One such Terminator had been sent back to 1998 on a mission to eliminate John Connor. Unlike the others, this one succeeded. In this timeline, a new form of artificial intelligence known as Legion was created in 2022. Originally, Legion had been designed as an anti-terrorist cyber-warfare system, but like Skynet before it, it came to view all of humanity as a threat. Connecting to computer systems all across the planet, Legion was able to effectively shut down all civilian systems worldwide. Mankind's reliance on technology had become its downfall as simultaneously, city power grids, services, transport and communications all came to a standstill. When the military became aware of what was happening, they attempted to destroy all of Legion's servers with tactical nukes, causing widespread destruction and loss of life as a result. This failed to stop Legion, which began using what remaining facilities it had to build an army of machines to hunt down the surviving humans. A resistance movement was eventually established thanks to a young Mexican woman called Danielle Ramos. Seeing how the J-Day survivors were turning on one another, Dani was able to encourage some to stand together in order to oppose Legion. Her words soon spread among the survivors, inspiring them to take up arms and unite against the machines. Structure The Resistance is made up of multiple units and cells scattered around the planet. Each unit has its own commander, though they all answer to the authority of an Allied Commander who leads the entire movement. The Resistance is made up largely of soldiers and officers from different national militaries that existed before J-Day, though it employs anyone who shows a willingness and ability to fight. Communications between different units is carried out via encrypted radio transmissions. Equipment Most of humanity's advanced military hardware was either destroyed on Judgment Day or commandeered by Skynet. The Resistance utilized whatever functional equipment they could salvage, but without the facilities or resources to build new equipment, they had to resort to scavenging equipment and materials from abandoned cities or steal it from the machines themselves. Armour Early on in the war, Resistance fighters would generally wear kevlar-based body armour if it was available. Over time, Skynet would develop phased-plasma weaponry that could easily burn through kevlar, rendering it useless. Later in the war, the Resistance placed little importance on armour as it would slow their soldiers down and could not withstand plasma fire anyway. Weaponry The Resistance entered the war equipped with standard ballistic weapons and explosives such as grenades and rocket launchers. While explosives have consistently remained useful against the machines, Skynet would construct new machines out of stronger materials that would render small arms useless. However, Skynet would inadvertantly aid the Resistance by developing energy-based weapons for its own forces, which would then be stolen by the Resistance and reverse-engineered into formats that human combatants would be able to handle and operate. Vehicles Most armoured vehicles such as tanks would be secured by Skynet following Judgment Day and scrapped to build new Hunter-Killers, though the Resistance would have access to a number of lighter ground vehicles. This would prove to be advantageous to the Resistance fighters who required speed and mobility during battles to remain out of the machines' range. The Resistance would also use humvees and trucks for carrying troops and supplies, as well as for infiltrating enemy strongholds. The Resistance also employed a number of aircraft such as Seahawk helicopters and A-10 Warthog fighter jets. These vehicles were in short supply and impossible to replace, so were only used sparingly. Terminators On several occassions, the Resistance have been able to capture Terminators and reprogram them to aid humans instead of kill them. With their computer brains and highly resilient bodies, Terminators have proven to be very effective as security units and bodyguards for Resistance commanders. Some Terminators have also been deployed on time-travel missions to protect key Resistance members before J-Day, most notably John Connor himself. Tactics Skynet would maintain technological superiority throughout the span of the war, so the Resistance had to resort primarily to guerilla tactics and other non-conventional methods of warfare. These consisted largely of hit-and-run strikes on various Skynet positions with small groups of Resistance fighters diverting the enemy's attention and allowing a larger force to advance and catch the machines off-balance. The many years John Connor was trained by Sarah Connor, his mother, in the South and Central Americas has helped John in many ways, not just because of the combat skills he learned but the lifestyles and tactics as well. When John and his mother were training/hiding in Latin America, Sarah sought out anyone and everyone that could help teach her son. In the process, John and Sarah ended up living, training and fighting with many groups of guerrillas, paramilitary forces and freedom fighters - all of whom had extensive knowledge of fighting a larger, more numerous and better armed central enemy/government. The skills acquired by John in these various theaters of operations, in combination with tactics he learned from ex-U.S. Special Operations Force and British SAS personnel (whom his mother dated or he met after Judgment Day), his mother and his own personal combat-oriented genius have allowed him to wage many styles of war (both conventional and unconventional) on Skynet and its machines. Bases Below is a list of known Resistance bases and outposts. * USS ''Wilmington'' - A nuclear submarine that served as the primary headquarters for the Resistance command staff in the early years of the war. Its mobility and inaccessibility allowed it to remain undetected by Skynet for years. However, in 2018, the Wilmington attempted to intercept a false signal from Skynet that they believed they could exploit and use to shut down the machine network. This ploy allowed Skynet to detect the vessel and it was promptly destroyed by a Hunter-Killer attack with all hands lost. * Oregon Bunker - An underground bunker located in Oregon. This base was destroyed in 2027 by a T-800 infiltrator. * Kansas Bunker - A fortified Resistance bunker in the TSCC timeline. This base was overrun by Skynet forces in 2027 and its personnel were captured. * Hammerhead Bunker - An underground bunker located beneath the ruins of Los Angeles. * Eagle Rock - A Resistance bunker that appeared in The Sarah Connor Chronicles. In 2027, Skynet deployed a biological weapon against the Resistance, a synthetic virus that killed all the occupants of the Eagle Rock base, save for one refugee who was immune. * Crystal Peak - An outdated fallout shelter for U.S. government officials. In the Salvation timeline, John Connor and Kate Brewster sheltered here when Skynet carried out its nuclear attack. Personnel Below is a list of all known Resistance members across the different Terminator timelines. * John Connor - Leader of the Resistance; he inspired the human race to unite against Skynet's oppression and fight to reclaim the Earth from the machines. In most timelines, he leads the Resistance to victory. In others, he is killed before seeing the war to its conclusion. * Kate Brewster - In the Salvation timeline, she is John Connor's wife and second-in-command of Tech-Com. She is also Tech-Com's senior medical officer. * Kyle Reese - Tech-Com Sergeant under John Connor's direct command. He is also John's biological father, having conceived him with Sarah Connor after being sent back in time to 1984 to protect Sarah from a Skynet assassination attempt. He is killed during this mission. * Derek Reese - Older brother of Kyle Reese in the TSCC timeline. He is sent back through time to protect the Connors and ensure that John survives J-Day. * Hugh Ashdown - Commander of the Resistance in the Salvation timeline prior to the assault on Skynet Central. He was commanding the USS Wilmington when it was attacked and destroyed by a Hunter-Killer. * Blair Williams - A member of John Connor's Tech-Com unit; A10 Warthog pilot. Category:Military Category:Resistance Groups Category:Terminator